NEW SCOTLAND — The New Scotland Town Board is reviewing various options to balance a proposed $7.6 million budget without depleting the town’s fund balance or exceeding its 1.44-percent tax cap. The board is split over raising members’ salaries while other cuts are proposed.

The 2017 budget proposed by Supervisor Doug LaGrange would include a 9-percent increase for the salaries of the town supervisor and four town board members. LaGrange told The Enterprise last week that this is in line with a study of salaries of elected officials in towns similar to New Scotland, such as Brunswick in Rensselaer County.

“The town of New Scotland has really sold their employees short,” said LaGrange.

The town supervisor’s salary would increase by about $5,000, to $65,000 a year. Town board members’ salaries would increase by $800 each, to $9,626.93 a year. The town clerk, town judges, and highway supervisor’s salaries would remain the same.

Other salary increases would include Deputy Town Clerk Patricia Barber going up a salary grade level upon her anniversary date of employment in June 2017, an increase in hours for town Building Inspector Jeremy Cramer, and an additional employee for the Department of Public Works.

“The people at the top don’t usually get the raises”

The three board members present at Thursday’s budget meeting expressed concern in receiving a raise when other departments were cutting back. Although board member William Hennessy Jr. said he didn’t disagree with LaGrange that the board’s salaries were likely lower than average, he said he was uncomfortable increasing them if that meant further dipping into the reserve funds.

Board member Adam Greenberg said, “I can’t ask in good conscience to have the fire department cut their budget and give myself a raise.” He added, “If the news is, ‘We have budget issues’...then we have to treat the entire budget that way.”

Board member Laura Ten Eyck said her primary experience in dealing with people’s salaries has been at her family’s business at Indian Ladder Farms.

“The people at the top don’t usually get the raises,” she said, adding that she was uncomfortable with increasing the salaries of “the people who decide who’s to get increases.”

Board member Patricia Snyder was not present at the meeting and could not be reached for comment.

A ‘hard to swallow’ ambulance budget

Earlier in the meeting, both New Salem Volunteer Fire Department and Onesquethaw Volunteer Fire Company met with the board to discuss their requested funds from the town. Both districts have low fund balances.

OVFC, which has separate budgets for its volunteer fire company and its volunteer ambulance service, had sent a letter to the town board stating that it could reduce its fund for a new ambulance by $20,ooo in light of the closure of Voorheesville Area Ambulance Service.

“We’re not happy about it, our membership’s not happy about it, our board’s not happy about it, but we’re living with it,” said company President Debra Lobdell, adding that she wanted the town board to understand the sacrifice.

“It’s hard for us to swallow taking $20,000 out of our budget,” she said, “However, it probably comes at a time when it’s an easier point for us to do it this year — 2017.”

Lobdell explained that there is $180,000 in the fund to pay for a new ambulance, and the department could dip into an expense fund. She added that OVFC would appreciate the town using less than the $20,000 offered.

LaGrange noted at the meeting that he had requested OVFC consider taking the ambulance line off the budget for a year as the county sheriff’s office is upping its EMS coverage in the town.

He later told The Enterprise that the closure of VAAS and the subsequent increase of coverage of its area by the Albany County Sheriff’s EMS squad will increase costs to the town and the village. He added he was appreciative of OVFC’s sacrifice, which will help decrease the need to raise taxes to cover the costs.

LaGrange added that there is a possibility that VAAS could even end up donating an ambulance to OVFC, putting off the need to buy a new one.

Balancing the budget

Budget drafters are currently facing a dilemma: either continue to deplete the townwide fund balance or exceed the town’s 1.44-percent tax cap; superseding the state-set levy limit could require a supermajority vote. However, other options have been brought to the table.

The townwide fund, often referred to as the A Fund, is funded by a townwide tax for specific townwide services such as parks and recreation and the town hall. A separate fund for the parts of the town that are outside the village of Voorheesville is called the B Fund, and is funded by taxes to residents outside of the village for services specific to that area such as garbage collection.

Because the village of Voorheesville collects its own separate sales tax separate from the county, the town’s sales-tax revenues must go only to the B Fund. However, the funds can go to the A Fund if residents outside of the village are not taxed.

At the budget workshop last Tuesday, LaGrange discussed potentially making the sales tax available in the A Fund in order to replenish its dwindling fund balance.

Another option, one that the board seemed to warm the most to, would be to reduce the tax levy in the B Fund and increase it in the A Fund. This would replenish A’s fund balance as well as balance the budget.

“We’d eventually not be using any fund balance out of anywhere,” said LaGrange.

The estimated unreserved townwide fund balance is $582,846, according to the proposed budget. The  estimated unreserved fund balance for the town outside the village is $1,635,190.

LaGrange told The Enterprise that it was important to have the fund balances available because they are used for such things as paying for projects that either awaiting grants that have not yet gone through or before taxes have come in, or for emergency situations such as when Tropical Irene hit the area in 2011.